UK extends immigration rights for 3M eligible Hong Kongers

LONDON (AP) — Britain announced Wednesday that it was extending residency rights for up to 3 million Hong Kongers eligible for the British National Overseas passport, stressing that it would uphold its historic duty to the former British colony after Beijing imposed a sweeping new national security law in the city.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told lawmakers that the U.K. was changing its immigration rules to give people who are connected to Britain by virtue of Hong Kong's status as a former British colony and territory a special route to citizenship.

Eligible individuals from Hong Kong currently can come to the U.K. for six months without a visa. Under the new policy, they will have the right to live and work in the country for five years. After that, they will be allowed to apply for settled status and then again for citizenship.

The announcement came hours after China imposed a sweeping new national security law in Hong Kong that Britain calls a flagrant breach of China’s international obligations and a “clear and serious violation” of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

That treaty paved the way for Hong Kong's handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997, and was supposed to guarantee at least 50 years of Western-style rule of law and civil liberties for the city under a “One Country, Two Systems” principle until 2047.

Chinese officials have in the past referred to the document as a “historical document,” a claim that Britain strongly rejects.

“The prime minister and the government are crystal clear that the United Kingdom will keep its word,” Raab said. “We will live up to our responsibilities to the people of Hong Kong.”

The U.K. introduced a special, limited type of British nationality in the 1980s for people who were a “British...